


hate to love you

by ArgentLives



Series: live in gal pals [7]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-30
Updated: 2015-05-30
Packaged: 2018-04-01 18:01:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4029412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgentLives/pseuds/ArgentLives
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iris has a neon crush on her co-worker and she's really mad about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	hate to love you

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt: "Have you ever wanted to hate someone?"

She’s sitting across from Barry, during one of their many platonic coffee dates, and she’s visibly stressed about something. This is usually their time to vent to each other about anything and everything, to talk about their days and get things off their chest. The thought is making her stomach churn, and her chest feels all tight and funny, and this would be the ideal time to get some good complaining in. And yet, something is holding her back. 

“Iris, are you okay?” he asks, concerned, so obviously she isn’t doing a very good job at hiding it. She doesn’t know why she’s so reluctant to share what she’s thinking for once—but at the same time she feels like she’s going to explode if she doesn’t, so she sighs and goes for it anyway.

“Have you ever wanted to hate someone?” she bursts out, slightly embarrassed, but it instantly feels like a weight off her shoulders.

He opens and closes his mouth a few times, clearly debating on the right thing to say. In the end, he goes with the truth.

“Um, no. I really can’t say that I have…” he gives her an apologetic smile, and she groans and slumps in her chair.

“No, of course you haven’t,” she says, shaking her head, and she really believes it. She honestly can’t picture Barry–bright, optimistic, and sometimes overly sweet–ever actually hating someone, let alone wanting to.

He waves a hand at her, motioning her to continue. “That doesn’t matter, though. Tell me who this person is who you wish you could hate.”

She bites her lip and drums her fingers against her coffee cup, feeling guilty for even thinking it. Still, she doesn’t think he’ll judge her.

“Linda Park,” she sighs, “she’s a sports journalist where I work. She’s just—I don’t know. She’s just perfect. She’s  _too_  perfect. Her hair is perfect, her face is perfect, and she’s funny, and she’s nice, and she’s cool and confident and she’s good at what she does and she’s just, like, ridiculously pretty and she dresses fabulously and she keeps  _smiling_  at me when I’m  _trying_  to do work and it’s not  _fair_ , Barry, and I want to resent her for it because that would be easier but I—”

She stops when she notices the grin on his face and the knowing look in his eyes.

"What? Why are you smiling at me like that?” she huffs, annoyed.

“Nothing, nothing…it’s just, it doesn’t really sound like you want to hate her to me. It sounds like you want to do a whole lot of something else, though.”

She splutters indignantly at his insinuation.

“I don’t—what’re you…what do you mean by that, huh?”

He laughs at her distress and places a calming hand over hers.

“Listen, Iris, how about you ask this Linda out for coffee sometime this week? And then you can decide whether you actually want to…hate her, or not.”

She narrows her eyes at him, at his overly-smug grin, but nods anyway. She’s always down for coffee.

“Alright, fine, Mr. Know-it-All. I will.”

And she does. Not right away—it takes a few days for her to gather the courage to approach Linda at work, even though she’s never had a problem with things like this before. There’s just something about this girl. In fact, it’s actually an accident when she finally does it. She’s walking to her desk, shuffling a bunch of papers in her hand and not really paying attention to where she’s going, when she bumps into someone and her papers go scattering all over the ground.

She immediately says sorry and drops to the ground to collect her things, and then suddenly there’s someone else kneeling beside her, pushing the rest of her papers into her hand. She looks up from the ground, and it’s Linda Park, right there in front of her. Of course it is. She’s momentarily taken off guard by that goddamn perfect smile, and instead of saying thank you, her mind has other plans.

“Do you want to grab a coffee with me after work?” she comes out with instead, and very narrowly resists the urge to bang her head against a nearby desk in embarrassment. Smooth has never really been her thing.

She’s not expecting the way Linda’s eyes light up in excitement, or the eager bob of her head as she nods a ‘yes’. 

“I would love to…it’s Iris, right? You’re the newbie here—I’ve been dying to get to know you,” she says with a wink, and Iris momentarily forgets how to speak.

And yeah, she thinks to herself as Linda helps her to her feet and they finalize their plans, she really doesn’t want to hate her, after all. But  _fuck_ , she wants her.


End file.
